from the University of Warwick

Professional discourse

We understand professional discourse as capturing any kind of communication, including spoken, written and multimodal, that occurs in a professional context. By ‘professional’ we mean traditional ‘white-collar’ workplaces but also ‘blue-collar’, ‘pink-collar’ as well as medical, educational, legal, and many other kinds of work settings. PAD members research various aspects of professional discourse and employ a wide range of discourse analytical frameworks and methodologies. We are particularly interested in

issues of identity construction and the ways in which different kinds of identities are constantly being constructed, negotiated, and sometimes challenged in professional discourse;

issues of gender, and questions around the various ways of ‘doing gender’ at work;

notions of (im)politeness and the ways in which what is considered to be (im)polite may differ remarkably across workplaces;

culture and intercultural communication in professional contexts – in particular in multicultural workplaces;

different forms of leadership and the ways in which leadership is enacted in and through discourse;

different aspects of collaboration and the ways in which collaboration is enacted in and through discourse;

how reflective practice can be enhanced by attention to practitioners' professional discourse

In our work we have explored, among others, the discursive activities of decision making, advice giving, problem solving, disagreeing, refusing, as we all as using and responding to different kinds of humour. The following are just some examples of current and recent projects involving PAD members:

The effectiveness of discharge summaries from hospital specialists to general practitioners. Together with colleagues and undergraduate students from the Warwick Medical School Stephanie Schnurr is exploring the current practice of written hospital discharge communication with the overall aim of developing new guidance for best practice.

A discourse analytic study of telegenetic counselling in Hong Kong. Together with colleagues from the University of Hong Kong, the Clinical Genetic Services of Hong Kong, and the University of Cardiff Stephanie Schnurr is analysing various aspects of telegenetic counselling from a discourse analytical perspective.

Teamwork and Leadership in medical emergencies. Jo Angouri with colleagues from Bristol and Imperial are researching what makes certain medical teams more effective than others. Through the analysis of different datasets, various factors have been identified.

Language policy and language use in the multilingual workplace. Jo Angouri has been investigating the global workplace and the role of linguae francae and local languages in the modern workplace. Issues around boundaries crossing are particularly relevant.

Investigating NEST schemes around the world: supporting NEST/NNEST collaborative practices (ELTRRA Call). Steve Mann is working on this project which is funded by: British Council (Project Start Date: 01/10/2013 - Project End Date: 30/09/2014) and looks at professional experiences and professional collaborative discourse.

The impact of teacher training at pre-service and early in-service levels on teacher performance in the classroom. Steve Mann is working with Keith Richards, Ema Ushioda and Annamaria Pinter on a project funded by Anglo Mexican Foundation (Project Start Date: 01/04/2014 - Project End Date: 20/12/2014) which looks at training processes and their impact on classroom discourse.